Studio Interview preview: Midcoast

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General, by Anna-lisa Saywell

Midcoast create stunning automotive imagery for a range of well-known clients using a blend of photography, retouching and CGI rendering techniques

Midcoast Studio has a long and rich creative history. The studio was founded by Paul Slocum and Madison Ford back in 1984, and its roots are in automotive photography, as you can see from the many examples across these pages.

Midcoast continues to be a major photography studio, tapping into its years of experience in the world of photography automobiles. However, in 2005 the studio expanded into 3D image services after seeing a growing demand in mainstream advertising. Alex Southern, business development at Midcoast, explains how the trend has continued to rise:

“The auto industry was an early adopter of CGI, and Midcoast has been a provider of CGI to major automakers for nearly a decade now. Ten years ago, about 20 per cent of automotive advertising was created digitally, and 80 per cent was produced via traditional photography. Now, those numbers have flipped.”

It’s true that today, virtually any product seen in advertising may be digitally created, from vehicles to furniture and even clothing. Southern attributes this change to many factors, not least cost:

“Over the last decade, our automotive clients have been steadily moving toward a CG workflow, as it can often reflect significant cost savings over traditional photography. CG also allows imagery of preproduction automobiles to be created before the actual vehicle is manufactured. Additionally, CG is an ideal way to update existing imagery, whether digital or photographic, to reflect new product changes such as revised fascias, or wheel and tyre combinations.”